Federal Judge In Boston Rules Gay Marriage Ban Unconstitutional
BOSTON — The federal law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define the institution and therefore denies married gay couples some federal benefits, a federal judge ruled Thursday in Boston.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled in favor of gay couples’ rights in two separate challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, a 1996 law that the Obama administration has argued for repealing. The rulings apply to Massachusetts but could have broader implications if they’re upheld on appeal.
The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.
Tauro agreed and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens in order to be eligible for federal funding in federal-state partnerships.
The act “plainly encroaches” upon the right of the state to determine marriage, Tauro said in his ruling on a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Martha Coakley. In a ruling in a separate case filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Tauro ruled the act violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“Congress undertook this classification for the one purpose that lies entirely outside of legislative bounds, to disadvantage a group of which it disapproves. And such a classification the Constitution clearly will not permit,” Tauro wrote.
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The Justice Department had argued the federal government had the right to set eligibility requirements for federal benefits — including requiring that those benefits go only to couples in marriages between a man and a woman.
Opponents of gay marriage said they were certain the rulings would be overturned on appeal.
Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, called Tauro’s ruling “judicial activism” and said Tauro was a “rogue judge.” Gay marriage advocates will keep pushing their agenda in the courts, she said, but noted voters consistently have rejected gay marriage at the ballot box, including in a recent California vote.
“We can’t allow the lowest common denominator states, like Massachusetts, to set standards for the country,” Lafferty said.
Lowest common denominator states like Massachusetts? Well Massachusetts does have the lowest divorce rate, but after Washington DC, it has the highest number of graduate degree holders in the country.
"Andrea Sheldon Lafferty is the Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition, working from the group's offices in Washington, D.C. She is also the daughter of the organization's chairman, Lou Sheldon.
Like her father and the TVC, she is opposed to LGBT rights. She has argued that, among other things, the majority of Americans oppose the "inappropriate, immoral, and invalid" legalization of same-sex marriage.
A majority of Americans DO NOT OPPOSE gay marriaages.
She's a liar.
TVC is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Her father, Lou Sheldon, was an associate of Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist jailed for influence peddling. Sheldon worked with Abramoff to lobby members of the US Congress to kill the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. Abramoff directed his client, eLottery, to direct $25,000 in payments to Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition.
The TVC has also been linked to the Mariana Islands worker abuse scandal. The organization was used by Abramoff to pay for the trip of at least one member of Congress to visit the island, then-Congressman Bob Schaffer. The Denver Post reported that the TVC paid the $13,000 travel bill for the trip, organized by Abramoff's lobbying firm.[1]
Abramoff's lobbying team would prepare questions and "factual backup" for friendly lawmakers. Trips to the island for congressmen and staff would be a key tool to "build permanent friends," the memo said.
The congressional junkets to the Mariana Islands were designed to build support in Congress among Republican lawmakers to block labor and immigration reforms at the islands, which had been found to harbor worker abuse and forced abortions among immigrant workers. The trips involved hotel stays and parasailing trips."
It appears that Lafferty needs to look in her own backyard for a "low common denominator." Incredible hypocrite and hate-monger. She will fail in her miserable crusade to deny Americans their equal rights.
